Project Sell This House - Weekly Update

A few years ago we began dreaming of a different house, a different way of life.  We dreamed of woods to explore, a field full of animals and space to play baseball, a campfire area to gather and roast marshmallows, a beautiful clothesline full of clothes blowing in the breeze, a huge garden...  a small farm with enough land to give us the freedom to do whatever we dream up. 



 

We started planning for this dream by working hard to pay off our credit cards and debt and waiting for the right time to sell our house.  Now our dream can start turning into reality.  The housing market is starting to improve a little and springtime is the best time to list a house.  With two months until our listing goal of March 1st., we've sprung into action. 

 

We know that in order to get our house to sell relatively quickly, we have to do some updates and freshen it up.  We're lucky that my mom is great at knowing just what to do to make a house more up to date and more appealing to buyers.  I've made list after list of things that we want to get done to the house before listing it. 

 

This is how I manage a project.... a binder, notebook paper, and lots of colored pens.  I made a page for each room (a different color for each page) and listed all that needed to be done in that room.  The binder has pockets so I can store ideas, paint colors, etc. and take the binder with me when I go shopping.  Some people like spread sheets and computer apps (aps? As you can see, I've never used an ap/app) to get organized... I like paper and pen.  My mom emailed me the other day when I told her I broke out the binder, " Once we ‘Johnson’ women get a binder – we’re lethal!". 

 

So, armed with our "House Binder", Jon and I got to work.

 



Our real estate agent agreed that we need to make the kitchen "pop" (aka: update it and make it beautiful).  The kitchen and bathrooms will be where we'll spend most of our budget.  This past weekend I sorted out all the cabinets.  I made a boxes labeled "donate", "storage", and then left in the cabinets only the essentials.  This gave the cabinets the feeling of more space... which is good in a smaller kitchen.  Buyers will look in cabinets. 

We're painting the cabinets white so Jon got to work sanding them.  He first labeled each cabinet and then Charlotte helped him take the doors off. 

Jon spent his Sunday sanding cabinets and watching football.  It took him hours and hours but he got all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and frames done.  Now it's up to me to paint them.

Just like I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets to give the illusion of more space, we're doing the same in all areas of the house.  We cleaned our our closet of anything non-essential.  The is the "after" picture.  Believe me, it's a huge improvement.

I bought a lot of paint at Lowes.  We're repainting every room in the house except Evan's room (the real estate agent loved the bugs painted on his walls).

3 gallons of Primer/Paint combo "Olympic One" for the cabinets, doors, and trim in the whole house
2 gallons of our neutral light gray for bedrooms and bathrooms (Olympic "Night Frost)
3 gallons of a soft green/gray for the living room and playroom(Olympic "Balsam)
1 gallon of a darker shade of green/gray for an accent wall in the living room and the kitchen.(Olympic "Birch Forest)

I put coats of paint on the paint stirrers so I could take them with me when I shop for accessories.

Another cleaned out cabinet.  This cabinet was completely packed full of stuff before I started.

Painting supplies

During naptime yesterday, I set up to get started on the cabinets.  I'll do a little each day this week until I'm done.  Designing Women helps make cabinet painting more fun

The paint is nice and thick but I'll still need to do 2-3 coats to get full coverage.  It'll be worth it to cover up the dated cabinets. 

With every project we mark off the list in the House Binder, we're a step closer to realizing our dream.  It's exciting and overwhelming.  We are lucky to be surrounded by wonderful people offering to help us.  My mom and Mark have been helping from the start with great advice and they'll be helping redo floors, counter tops, and lighting.  Jon's parents have offered to drive down from PA to help for a weekend.  We are so grateful. 

So, 1 week down, 7 left to go before we put our house on the market.